Charmed Life
by Laryna6
Summary: Every parent wove stories of witches and wizards, and every kid in England dreamed of being a wizard like Merlin. Except the ones like his aunt who wanted to be witches, with magic gardens and big cauldrons and everything. And Dudley. Dudley was going to be a knight.
1. Chapter 1

_This is an overall 'wouldn't it be nice/interesting if people were more sensible' AU. The focus is more on worldbuilding than plot, with how things could have ended up this way instead of as in canon._

 _The title is a reference to a Diana Wynne Jones book written well before HP about a boy who is brought to the home/government office building of the most powerful wizard in Britain and takes classes with other magical children in an alternate universe where everyone knows magic exists._

* * *

Of course Harry believed in magic. Everyone in England believed in magic.

Of course they did: Merlin was one of the founding heroes of the high kingdom that made England _England_ , the protector of King Arthur. England was protected by magic to this day, like during the Blitz, how bombs kept falling on places that had already been bombed and people somehow survived without a scratch.

Everyone knew that people in hospitals got better around Halloween, to the point the NHS let cancer patients from the rest of the EU come around then, since there usually weren't that many people that sick in England. It got them a lot of money.

The pagans might believe that it was the spirits of ancestors coming to check up on their descendants during the harvest festival instead of witches on broomsticks, but everyone agreed that either way, it was magic.

There was an old lady across the street, Ms. Figg, with tons of cats, which meant she might be a witch and so everyone was very respectful to her.

Aunt Petunia had lovely witch-themed jewelry that she wore to remember Harry's mum. She told him and Dudley about his mum in a hushed voice by candlelight, how she was a witch and brewed potions that cured people and had even married a wizard like Merlin. How Harry might grow up to be a wizard and then the Evans would have _two_ witches in the family, and since Dudley's aunt was a witch he should be proud and needed to get married and give Petunia grandchildren because whether or not he was a wizard, there was magic in his blood and he might be the proud father of another witch.

At this point, they were all pretty sure that Harry was a wizard. Either that or his parents' spirits were watching out for him, which would be just as good.

The trouble was that wizards were supposed to be all wise and noble, so Aunt Petunia didn't let him get away with _anything_ and he had to study more than Dudley, and herbs and stars and stuff too, because there was a wizard school and his Mum had to learn a lot about wizard stuff in a hurry because she hadn't had the right education growing up and his Aunt didn't want him to struggle and get looked down on.

Dudley had extra lessons and stuff too, because that was only fair, but he got to learn martial arts and compete in junior league tournaments already. Being a wizard who didn't know how to do magic yet didn't get you trophies the way being a little knight did. Harry felt that was hardly fair.

Then the day came that Aunt Petunia had marked on the calendar, and there was a real live owl that let him feed it the fillet mignon Uncle Vernon had bought special. They gave his reply to the owl, and the next day there was another letter asking when they wanted to have a real life witch or wizard come over to tell them things. Aunt Petunia whispered to them that she could tell Harry what he needed to know and take him to get his school things because of his Mum, but did he mind letting Dudley meet a real live witch?

Of course not! This meant Harry got to see one sooner too.

The witch was a wizard, a handsome silver-haired man with a knightly bearing that made Harry and Dudley look at each other thinking, ' _A wizard knight!'_ So cool!

He knew Aunt Petunia, which instantly made Harry's aunt ten times cooler, and apologized to her about coming instead of a professor, but they had so many young witches and wizards this year that the professors were swamped visiting people who _didn't_ have relatives who knew about magic and Albus hadn't wanted to keep Lily's family waiting.

He also had the paperwork for Harry to attend wizard summer school so he got to explore the wizard school before actual classes started and learn about how a proper wizard acted. It sounded so much less boring than the class Petunia made them go to to learn the waltz and foxtrot and act like Proper Young Gentlemen with the word wizard attached! Also he got to go there through the fireplace!

And they got to go to the wizard shopping district.

Every town had herb shops and a place where people could buy old-fashioned brooms and cauldrons and books on old-fashioned English cooking, before the Empire when everything became tasteless roast beef that let the French make fun of them. Every ice cream parlor had flavors like Dragon's Blood and Halloween Pumpkin and Witch's Brew. Tons of kids had wands for playing magic, and Harry had tried to cast tons of spells he made up with his, hoping something would work.

This place had a wand shop with wands that had sparks come out! And a flying broom store with a broom that had a chain on it for kids to try if they hadn't gotten to fly on a broom before.

They'd gone to the bank with real goblins first, though, so Uncle Vernon could exchange some money and Aunt Petunia could get the money for Harry's things out of his trust vault. Then the man they were with apologized, saying he needed to get something and they could wait here or they could ride with him through the caverns and it was _wicked_.

Getting fitted for wizard robes might have been boring, but they were _wizard_ robes and there was a real wizard in there who guessed that Harry must not have grown up a wizard because Draco knew _everyone_ (and that was the coolest name every) and without Harry getting a word in edgewise said that he was attending the summer school to help set a good example and Harry should come to him if he needed help with proper behavior because it was his family duty to look after the common people. Like a wizard knight, even if he was a bit snooty!

"Ah, Arthur!" he heard when he got out of the clothes shop.

"You asked me to meet you, my lord?"

"No need to be so formal, I'm not wearing that infernal judge's wig at the moment. Vernon, this is Arthur Weasley. He's the head of the Muggle Technology office, and he has a keen interest in your technologies and manufacturing techniques that made him a good pick for the job of studying how to apply magic to them responsibly and keep things like teapots some witch enchanted to pour tea for her old Mum from ending up in the general population and giving someone a heart attack. Arthur, this is Vernon Dursley."

"I remember you from the wedding!" Arthur said, smiling brightly. "You married Lily's sister, yes?"

"Yes," Uncle Vernon said, holding out a hand. "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you then."

He chuckled. "Don't worry, I didn't have eyes for anyone but Molly at my wedding either."

"Vernon is the head of a drill manufacturing plant."

"The making of tools used to make tools!" Arthur grinned, practically sparkling. "I'd love to hear about your work." His face fell. "I wanted to stay in contact with you and Petunia afterwards, but…"

Vernon waved away the apology. "Better safe than sorry dealing with those continental wizards… no offense," he told the old man quickly.

"No offense taken. Why do you think so many of us came to England?" he rolled his eyes.

"Should I assume that you're here because of…"

Vernon nodded, but the old man held a finger to his lips and Arthur nodded quickly, looking a little embarrassed. "It is a relief, but I won't say anything more."

"Oh, don't say that," Vernon said, clapping him on the back. "It's not often someone says they want to hear me talk about my work. Far too many people take drills for granted."

"No!" Arthur looked shocked.

When they went into the bookshop Vernon and Arthur remained outside with the old wizard to keep chatting about work. Harry caught Dudley rolling his eyes a moment before Petunia said, "Why don't you two look around for something interesting while I get Harry's school things. Just remember, Dudley, your book has to be something that it's alright for you to show our friends."

"Yes Mum," he said quickly, before darting a glance at Harry and the two of them dashed for the fiction section, passing a bushy-haired girl their age staring in delight as books flew around her.

"And I'll take this," the old wizard said once the clerk was done ringing up Petunia's purchases. "Here you go, boys," he said, handling _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_ to Dudley. "Now I believe there's a knight in at least one of these stories."

Dudley opened the book and started flipping through it as they walked out of the store, Harry leaning to look over his shoulder.

"Why didn't you just recommend it to me?" his aunt asked.

"Albus wanted me to pick up something as interest on all those late birthday presents, and he loves that book."

* * *

Most of the adult wizards at the school dressed in black robes, same as the uniform cloak. Except for Hagrid, who wore tough clothes to deal with the invisible animals and everything.

The headmaster wore a cloak all colors of the rainbow and there was a smiley-face and a peace sign button pinned to his hat, so the first time Harry saw him he knew he was a hippie.

There were a lot of them in England, what with Stonehenge and the magical tradition and everything. His aunt and uncle didn't quite approve of them, but they made Uncle Vernon's headache tea and the one kind of yogurt Aunt Petunia liked. Harry quite liked the commune in the town commons because they encouraged them to play with the animals and he'd ridden a horse once (only once: they were big and lots of other kids wanted to have a go).

"I'd love to tell you, 'Welcome to Hogwarts!' But I can't say that quite yet, you see. You'll be _here_ on the first day of school: right now we're smuggling you in so you can get a sneak peak." The headmaster held a finger to his mouth, as though he was telling them to keep a secret. "This first week, you'll be assigned to groups with professors showing you around and filling you in on whatever they think is good for you to know before you come to class. After that, in the mornings you'll have lessons and after lunch you'll be able to pick who to go with. Ms. Pince will escort a group to the library every day; Hagrid will be taking you to explore more of the grounds; Argus will be teaching you how to navigate the school; and Professors Sprout and Snape will be available to take you to the greenhouses and potions lab to work with you to make sure you know how to stay safe around magical plants and potions. I highly encourage everyone to go with each of those groups at least once. It's very easy to get turned around when the moving stairs turn around, you see."

Harry didn't want to be late for class when it was _magic_ class.

"Professor Lupin, Madam Hooch and the other professors will also be taking groups some days: they'll let you know their schedules. We may also have some mysterious guests!"

* * *

"Alright everyone, time to put on your blindfolds," said Hagrid. "They're all on? Here we go." He rang a gong, the sound reverberating in the huge stone chamber. A door grated open, and Harry heard something moving closer. "Now, this 'ere is Slytherin's basilisk, the protector of Hogwarts."

" _Even more tiny wizards than last year,"_ the snake hissed, sounding pleased. " _My hatchlings must be having large, healthy clutches."_

"Who wants to feed her?" Hagrid asked, sounding excited.

Harry thrust his hand up in the air before realizing that Hagrid couldn't see him. "Me, sir!"

"Ah, Harry!" Hagrid said cheerfully. "Reminded me of your dad, you did. Come over towards me, and I'll hand you a hunk of venison." Harry did, and Hagrid turned him around afterwards and pushed at his back. "Walk a bit closer to her, and hold it up in the air. This'll give her a chance to smell you too, so she knows you're one o' hers."

Harry did, and stopped when he felt cool air on his face.

" _A Potter,"_ the snake said thoughtfully.

"Yes, my name's Harry Potter," he told her.

" _You can speak a civilized tongue, child?"_

"I'm sorry ma'am, I don't know what you mean."

She hissed softly, thoughtfully. " _I smell a bit of Salazar's magic on you, but not his blood. Curious."_ The venison was lifted from his hands, and he heard her gulping it down. " _Come visit me again, hatchling."_

"You can understand her when she talks?" Hagrid asked.

"Yes? She wants me to visit her again. I understood a python at the zoo once too. Is that weird?" Harry asked him, as some of the kids behind him began to whisper.

"It's a rare gift, that is. One of the founders of Hogwarts had it, it's how he was able to get a basilisk to protect our school. Raised her himself, ol' Salazar did. Didn't care a bit about how dangerous she was," Hagrid said proudly. "But you'll hear more about the founders in Social Studies. Right, now back up Harry, time for someone else to get the chance to introduce themselves."

* * *

 _In this universe, Hagrid is a Slytherin, extremely skilled at finding loopholes he can squeeze his pets through and with the ambition to carry on Scamander's work. He helps out with the legal stuff for magical animal rights' groups._


	2. Chapter 2

_Updating Friday night takes me back to when I updated things regularly on Fridays. Although it's not technically Friday anymore…_

 _Sweet Tarts are not an English candy - they're used as the password to indicate that Albus gets sent candies from abroad/that he has contacts in the magical world outside of England. The books kind of ignored that, sadly._

 _Also, a character voice beta/pre-reader would be lovely, if anyone's so inclined. Having someone to bounce ideas off of does help me get writing done, too._

* * *

Harry wasn't the first, second or even the third student called up by the Deputy Headmistress during lunch. According to Ron, she was telling everyone about Career options they might not have thought of, so they had some idea of the variety of things and how to figure out what they might want to study a few years later when they could choose electives.

So he followed her out of the great hall, and down the staircase that appeared after she said, "Sweet Tarts," to a stone gargoyle.

"Harry!" the handsome old wizard said cheerfully, waving by a chair next to the Headmaster's desk, where Headmaster 'Call me Albus, it's not technically school yet' Dumbledore sat twinkling at them.

"Now," Albus said once the door shut behind Minerva, "You've probably heard a bit about what happened when you were a baby." He gave Harry a regretful look. "Gellert thought it might be best for us to sit down and have a talk with you about it, so you weren't relying on hearsay."

"Hermione read me the stuff in the history books, although Draco said a lot of that's rubbish," but even though Harry had heard about it from them, he still moved forward trying to hide how eager was to sit at the chair in front of the Headmaster. He wanted to hear more about his parents.

"Well…" Albus started.

"Yes," Gellert interrupted. "The textbook-makers want to sell to the American wizards, who don't allow enchanted printing presses because they're no-maj technology, but also refuse to teach children history that urges contact with non-wizards. The real historians are gathering interviews and documents but don't want to write about the war until enough time has passed to be able to analyze its effect on society, and the people who have written firsthand accounts don't want to publish them until they can give all those who fought beside them credit by name without inviting their assassination. So even a witch as bright as Hermione who doesn't have family who fought in the war she can ask as Draco does is stuck with English Wizarding History books that give it a brief half-chapter summary at best."

"That rather sums it up," Minerva agreed, looking disapproving at the state of things for a moment. "Gentlemen, if I may?"

"Of course, Minerva." Albus nodded his head. "It's yours to dispose of."

"Mr. Potter, stand up."

Harry Potter stood up straight quickly. "Yes, Professor."

She took out a piece of fabric and swirled it around his shoulders. "Wicked," Harry breathed when he realized he could see through it.

"Mr. Potter," she said, and Harry straightened up when she addressed him, "What I have just given you is an invisibility cloak. _The_ invisibility cloak. It was given to me by your father so that in the event of his death it would find its way to me and could be used to rescue you, if it came to that. Now it is yours. It has been passed down in your family from the time when the Potters were the Peverells."

"The Peverells?" Harry asked, pulling the cloak off his head so that she could see him looking at her.

"Like in the book I brought you," Gellert agreed. "It was a project of mine and Albus' when we first met, to track down the Deathly Hallows." He held up his wand, and the headmaster held up his hand. On the same finger as Aunt Petunia's engagement ring was a ring with a large black stone. "Unfortunately, we made enough noise while looking for them that others began to take their existence more seriously."

"The magic within them is unique and very tied to karma," Albus went on. "Killing and injuring others builds up negative karma, until fate is so tilted against the bearer of the Elder Wand that no matter how hard he tried to hold on to it, it will be taken from him and he will die by the sword he wielded. Commanding the souls of the dead to appear without thinking of their welfare is disrespectful at best, often cruel. The third brother could have used the cloak for foul purposes, but instead he only used it to prolong his life, and in the end sacrificed it and his life for the sake of his child."

"In other words, boy, use that cloak to harm someone instead of protect them and," Gellert mimed slitting his throat. "But, your father gave it to Minerva hoping that would save your life, and it may very well have. I myself would probably be dead by now if this thing and Albus hadn't force me to consider my actions _very carefully."_

"What do you mean about my father?" Harry asked.

"The cloak is the least dark of the three Hallows by far, and that may be because generations of Potters have given up its power for the sake of their children," Minerva told him. "It was too reckless to give something like this to an infant, when they might lose track of you, so they used a ritual to make sure that you would have the benefits of having the cloak passed to you, while I held on to it for you."

"How would that save my life?"

Minerva looked at the two men. "I'm afraid that groundless theorizing isn't my field."

Albus smiled. "Minerva's wonderfully practical," he agreed. "Gellert and I each have a theory: it could be either, but most likely both factors were at work."

"The Dark Lord of Running Away from Death tried to cast a magic that works by seeking the soul and binding it to death on the child of a family whose magic has been entwined for generations with a magical artifact that conceals them from death itself. When he cast Avada Kedavra on you, the spell might have worked perfectly well, but death simply wasn't able to take you. That's an oversimplification," Gellert said, flicking his fingers. "I can lead you through the logic once you've taken some arithmancy and Ancient Runes. The correspondences give you a very solid advantage over his magic."

"Another possibility is that by your father giving up the cloak to protect you, and by your mother defending you to the last, both of your parents' gave everything so that you would live and be safe, Harry," Albus told him gently. "Love is one of few powers stronger than death, and the mystical correspondence to the passing of the cloak could have channeled that power in a way that let them save you."

"You're saying it like… why would he kill them to get to me?" He was just a baby, when his mother was a brilliant witch and his father a brave wizard.

"There was a prophecy that could have applied to any number of children, but only two of them were likely targets. He likely chose you as his nemesis because your mother spent her childhood outside the wizarding world…"

"Lord Coward comes from a line that was practically squibs for so many generations you might as well consider him a half-blood," Gellert interrupted, rolling his eyes.

Albus paused and gave him a look. "Really? Rolling your eyes at a half-blood?"

Gellert winced. "Sorry, dear."

"I know that wasn't how you meant it, but you still said it as though half-blood is an insult. We've been having this conversation for decades. You are a role model, you know. Don't encourage people to act the ways you find so idiotic and then complain about how those attitudes would have been stamped out already if _other_ wizards weren't such fools."

"Yes, that is the problem with being geniuses like us. The mind is the ultimate weapon, and the sharper it is the more damage you do if you cut yourself," Gellert said, tapping his fingers together thoughtfully.

"In any case, Mr. Potter," Minerva said, a slight crease between her eyebrows indicating her annoyance. "You survived the Killing Curse that has been certain death since the time of the Ancient Greeks, and the backlash somehow took down a wizard with a level of power only seen a handful of times in a century; the charisma to convince some deluded old fools that he could get their heirs to come back into line; the intelligence to puzzle out the darkest of magics and the complete lack of not just decency but sense required to split his soul into fragments."

"Voldemort is not dead, I'm afraid," Albus said, and it was the first time Harry had heard anyone just come out and say his name. "He fled to the continent, to one of the many conservative wizards there. Ah, some background… Almost three quarters of a century ago now, Gellert and I led progressive movements in Britain and Eastern Europe. The young wizards and witches who joined us in working towards ending the abuse of people who couldn't defend themselves against magic and eventually having open and honest relations with our neighbors have grandchildren now, but wizarding folk can live a very long time."

Gellert tapped his fingers on his wand holster. "And some children saw advantage in currying the favor of their parents by being outspoken about their desire to pick on people not their own size, or wanted to keep buying into an ideology that told them that they were _born_ superior, even though that meant they never had truly had the chance to become great on their _own_ merit, if it was simply what was expected of them."

"England has advanced so far that I've had the pleasure of my students pointing it out when I fail to do a good enough job of defying the way I was brought up," Albus said, sparkling. "But we managed to escape some of the Continent's social problems thanks to Helga Hufflepuff. Classism in Wizarding Britain was equally entrenched but far less severe, partially because the pureblood mania caused even the most 'common' families to be desirable marriage partners. Growing up treating some wizards as worth less than other wizards makes it harder to get people to stop treating _non_ -wizards as worth less than wizards. Those poor people who grow up thinking they're near the bottom of the social ladder can feel like they're losing power if the rung below them is no longer below them, instead of seeing it as destroying the system that keeps them down as well."

"Wonderful woman, Helga Hufflepuff," Gellert said, smirking. "Clever, evil, _effective_ woman. If she was alive I might leave you for her, Albus."

The headmaster propped his chin on his hand, looking thoughtful but with one side of his mouth turned up in a smile. "Yes, that would be understandable," he agreed.

"Gentlemen, the boy is _eleven_." Minerva folded her arms.

"No flirting in front of the children, Minerva?" Albus raised an eyebrow in slight surprise.

"When have I ever said that?" She demanded. "Keep flirting in front of the children, how are they supposed to learn how to make a marriage work for a century or more without examples? Stop turning this into another discussion about your social movement, Gellert, and let Albus simplify it for Harry."

Albus sighed. "Let me try that again. Lord Voldemort still exists, although he is no longer alive and much reduced in power. Your mother's family's love for you kept you safe and hidden when you were younger, Harry, but you are now at the age where your magic is shifting over from devoting all its power to protecting you to giving you conscious command over it and no longer acting on its own." Harry saw worry in eyes that until now had seemed young even in an old face. "That will make you increasingly vulnerable until you learn how to protect yourself. Because it was built to shepard children through those years, Hogwarts is the safest place in all of Britain, and Gellert will also be staying here as much as possible and commuting to handle both his duties and some of mine that aren't related to Hogwarts so you have one more protector."

"Oh?" Gellert asked, when Harry frowned, puzzled. "Go ahead, ask. You don't need to raise your hand in here."

"Hagrid said that too, that Hogwarts is the safest place in Britain. Wouldn't it be the bank?" Not that Harry wanted to be locked up in a bank vault.

Gellert and Professor McGonagall chuckled. "You're a sharp little one, wondering what's so safe about this place and its death forest, greenhouses and pens full of things that will kill you and Rowena Ravenclaw's attack staircases." Gellert smirked.

"Accidental magic is also known as subconscious magic, while spellcasting is conscious magic," Professor McGonagall explained. "Having magical threats nearby keeps subconscious magic from slacking off, so it will keep protecting you as long as possible. In addition to that, when a young witch first encounters a danger, it's normal for her to freeze or panic. When she encounters the same danger a second time, however, she'll know it's possible for her to handle the matter, so she won't have to wrestle her emotions into submission before she can deal with the problem. Experiencing dangers for the first time while still protected by strong subconscious magic allows children to learn to handle them with confidence. Your parents were Gryffindors, Mr. Potter. By the time they graduated, they had the composure of veterans, able to fight without a second's warning or hesitation even in the face of a Dark Lord."

"Right now you could jump off a cliff and while your subconscious might allow you to get banged up a bit to teach you not to do that again, you would not suffer any permanent damage," Gellert said, shrugging. "The Coward Lord used Avada Kedavra on you because it takes magic that strong to kill a baby wizard."

"Young wizards are very like dragons," Albus agreed. "Dragons are very resistant to spells even though they can't cast any of their own, because all their magic goes into keeping them safe from their own magical fire and allowing them to fly. It takes so much magic to overcome that resistance that even the strongest spells are weak enough they're nothing but nuisances by the time they penetrate a dragon's skin. It takes _very_ powerful magic to permanently harm a wizarding child even as old as thirteen. During the school year, Hogwarts is the safest place in Britain because in addition to the wards and the Founder's other precautions, in addition to the professors, myself and Gellert, there are also five hundred wizarding children thirteen and younger under this roof, their powers constantly working to make this place safe for them."

"That protection goes away during the age of fourteen for most purposes, but it's not until fifteen that a witch can hurt herself with her own magic, or her magic can be turned against her."

"There is a condition where a young wizard's magic can turn against them," Gellert added. "It will lash out at things around them, but it can't actually hurt them until they turn ten or eleven and the first loose fragments of their magic are no longer incapable of harming them. Not that this applies to anyone in Britain," he added when Minerva glared at him for going off-topic.

"As soon as the school year starts, you'll be taking Defense with Professor Lupin. Who, it just so happens, knew your father." Albus smiled. "By the time you reach fourteen, even outside Hogwarts and your step-parents' home you should be able to protect yourself until an adult can reach you. According to the prophecy, just by existing you severely weaken Voldemort, so hopefully the aurors will be able to deal with him well before you graduate."

"What if I don't want someone else to deal with him?" Harry wanted to know.

Gellert and Minerva looked at each other. "Gryffindor," Gellert said, smirking. Minerva just loosened her reserve enough to allow a flicker of a smile.

"I mean, there _is_ a prophecy, right?" Harry added sheepishly. "If I'm supposed to defeat him, then wouldn't people just get killed if they try to fight him instead of me?"

"Look where paying too much attention to prophecies got Lord Vol de Morte," Gellert pointed out. "Not that I _know_ where he is right now, or I'd be there instead of here…"

"I promise that I'll discuss the prophecy with you after your fifth year," the headmaster told him. "If matters haven't been resolved by that point, that's when you'll start needing a firm grasp of Defense Against The Dark Arts, and if you take divination you'll be able to interpret the prophecy yourself. Gellert is right that reacting without thinking right after hearing a prophecy tends to lead to the worst interpretation coming true. Try to avert a prophecy and you're opposed by very powerful magic. If you think carefully and work to fulfill the prophecy in the way that best suits you, then it's possible to harness that magic."

"He will _not_ get away with what he did to your parents, Mr. Potter," Minerva said coldly. "We can promise you _that_ , even if I'm afraid that if you want him to fall by your hand, you'll have to get in line."

* * *

 _AU where Albus and Gellert were dragged to a World's Fair and hit upside the head with the clue bat re. just how much it sucked (for them) that wizarding society excluded muggles and magical beings. Instead of the Wizarding World War 1 leading right into Voldemort, you had the Wizarding Sixties. Voldemort, well, I'll go into it more in actual fic text instead of A/N._

 _It was their experiences with the Elder Wand that made them go 'yeah how about no' to completing the set, because the magic is very clearly malicious and Gellert thinks that traps should be sprung by someone who is not him but on the other hand he doesn't want someone not him or Albus getting the power if they survive, while Albus has the job of vetoing things involving innocent people._

 _Canon Gellert had the Elder Wand._ Maybe _he threw the duel (and the_ war) _only for Albus' sake, but it's equally likely that he realized too late that he'd lost his only source of intelligent conversation by pursuing an idiotic philosophy… (There's a Korean webcomic called Noblesse I love for laying out exactly why good will always triumph because evil is, by its very nature, incompetent.)_

 _This Gellert figured out that 'other people matter' much earlier and he's had a lot of time to work on brainhacking himself into seeing other people as people instead of mistaking them for things. He still lacks natural empathy, but actual compassion is a learned thing, not an inborn one. With Gellert figuring out the whole 'precious person' concept before starting an actual war, he and Albus ended up a strategic power couple, more politically than in warfare until Tom came along. Finding out that his hippie Transfiguration Professor was secretly badass was not a pleasant surprise for Voldemort (well, they needed to test out just how invincible the Elder Wand really was, you see…)._


	3. Chapter 3

On Wednesday of the next week, the children were divided into two. Harry was in the same group as Hermione, but Ron and Neville were in the other group.

They were led to a classroom with "History of Magic" on one blackboard and "Muggle Studies" on the other.

After they sat, Gellert followed them in.

"Hello, children," he told them. "I'm sure you've figured out that we divided you into two groups: the children raised only in the wizarding world, and those of you have split your lives between the two worlds, were raised entirely unaware of magic or fall somewhere between the two. My name is Professor Emeritus Gellert Grindelwald." He paused to write it, half on each blackboard, "And because I'm the headmaster's husband I have this opportunity to expose you to what many conservative wizards consider propaganda." He smirked at them as though he was playing a trick on people who deserved it and he was giving them a chance to be in on it.

"As muggle technology increases, wizards throughout the world have been separating themselves and their lives more and more from those without magic. This can be seen in how history at Hogwarts was divided into History of Magic, a required course, and Muggle Studies, an elective." He underlined that title. "The history of 99.9 percent of the human race and it was an _elective_ , despite the fact that wizarding history makes very little sense and is very boring outside of the broader picture of what was happening worldwide. When historians began to look at the two together, it was _amazing_ how many of the great questions of Wizarding history suddenly had obvious answers.

"Separation breeds fear. It breeds ignorance, and we fear what we do not understand. When we are afraid, it becomes natural either hide ourselves away, or try to convince ourselves that the other is weak and easily subdued… which is then 'proven' in ways that anger the other party. It is _not_ possible for wizards to hide forever. This last century has seen unprecedented innovation in all aspects of magic," he turned to write on the board, "Thanks to geniuses like myself and Albus and the hard work of people like Dr. Newt Scamander and Hogwarts' own Professor Sprout. It'll be confirming my hard-earned reputation for arrogance when I say that people like these," he pointed at the names he'd written down, "are one in a thousand." He looked across the room. "How many 'one in a thousand' innovators are there in _six billion people?_ The rate of progress among muggles has always outstripped the development of the magical world by far. They simply have more people than we do, and now that they're educating more women and not leaving potential geniuses untaught because they were born into the wrong race or class, they're going to be able to take more and more advantage of the wealth of talent they possess.

"Eventually," he said, beginning to pace across the room, "Muggle technology will progress to a point where they will be able to find us and do much of what we wizards can do. Many wizards see this as the end of our world. It is not. It is the only way our world can survive. If a muggle can levitate a book with a device," the teacher said, lifting Hermione's copy of _Hogwarts, A History_ with a wave of his hand, "then why should they care that some people are born able to do it? Rather, they will care, but not because they find witches and wizards terrifying. Because magic is _fascinating_ , and the desire to discover is the best part of human nature. At that point, we will have access to the muggle talent pool, and be able to explore frontiers of magic yet undreamed of. I truly hope I live to see that day."

He looked out at them. "Previous generations of muggle folk in this very country hated and feared magic. Is there anyone in this room who didn't wish at some point in their life that they could grow up to be a wizard or witch?"

No hands were raised.

He nodded. "You children are a _vitally_ important part of the future of magic. Someday, you and your families will be the bridge that connects the two worlds. That helps give non-magic hospitals regular access to magical medicine and healers access to muggle science and research techniques to improve treatments. But I'd rather tell you now so that it doesn't come as a surprise later: some adults are not very bright."

Muffled laughter from somewhere in the room.

"A great many wizards are terrified of muggles finding out we exist, despite the fact that muggles _do_ know we exist. The Ministry of Magic is in contact with the British Government, and is… in an odd legal situation, something like a Commonwealth nation, because your wizarding nation's charter was drawn up by Arthur and Merlin and a great many later parts of the common law and Magna Carta don't apply to you. To the kind of people who are terrified of muggles and yet at the same time convinced that they can play tricks on Muggles without consequence, the very existence of people like you is a danger to the wizarding world. Even Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders, thought Hogwarts taking on muggle-born students was hazardous – although please, don't let that prejudice you against Slytherin House. You'll be covering this early in History, but Slytherin felt that way at the time for historical reasons that don't apply to modern Britain.

"Wizarding Britain has been on the forefront of setting up the groundwork for open contact between our two worlds for decades. Around the time you were born, we fought a war to save our future. Your future.

"You'll hear the time between the two World Wars referred to as the Wizarding Sixties. The first World War made a lot of wizards start to realize that muggles could be a threat to us, and the resulting reactionary nonsense was 'a total drag.' We young wizards had our liberties vastly restricted, and it was hardest on people who didn't want to marry and start producing children at absurdly young ages – before that time traditional wizards did _not_ have children before the age of forty, when they were certain their powers were firmly under control. The fad of couples having children in their twenties left a great many pureblood women unable to ever have a second child.

"All this interest in bloodlines, and one of the focuses was the Gaunt family, descendents of Salazar Slytherin, who the pureblood supremacists claimed was an ideological forebear despite the number of half-bloods and muggleborns who have been sorted into Slytherin over the centuries." He rolled his eyes. "Because of the Gaunt Family's rampant inbreeding, the father and son were practically squibs, and the daughter had been kept from attending Hogwarts – her father lied and told her that she was a squib to keep her from questioning this – and…" He paused. "Albus will make me sleep on the couch if I go into too much detail on Merope's childhood. Being swept off her feet, taken to London, given decent clothing and promised remedial instruction in magic should have been the happiest day of her life… except that she had fallen in love with a local muggle, Tom Riddle, who already had a girlfriend and she did not wish to marry anyone but him.

"Her protector seemed to accept this, and she was allowed to mingle with Wizarding Society, attending balls and social events until hopefully she got over her broken heart and found someone… And then it seemed as though she did.

"None of us realized that she was being given love potion.

"When the child was almost born, the father became so convinced that his bride _had_ to love him, in all his pureblood glory, that he finally gave in to the family healer's frantic begging and took her off the love potion. She seemed willing to stay, and it seemed as though he would have his perfect heir…

"But poor Merope grew up in an abusive home. She knew how to hide her true feelings from her captor, and she now knew that there was a world outside the door and friends who would help her. She'd been taught a number of useful charms by fellow witches in case her father and brother ever were let ouf of Azkaban and came after her. She was able to bide her time until she could escape her captor.

"Unfortunately, the stress of her escape and the exhaustion of her crippled magic triggered premature labor, and in her pain and exhaustion she somehow ended up taken to a Muggle orphanage to give birth, where she perished, but not before naming the child after the man she'd wanted for his father.

"Tom Riddle was found eleven years later, when his Hogwarts letter came. Growing up a poor orphan, he responded to the overtures of his father and returned to the bosom of that family.

"Then after graduating Hogwarts he killed them all. Which, understandable." Grindlewald shrugged. "However, it wasn't out of a son's love for his mother. His conception under love potion left him incapable of love. This is not the same thing as someone who will never fall in love – I myself am aromantic and that hasn't kept me from having a close relationship with someone I hold very dear. My heart has never fluttered. I have never dreamed of kissing anyone in the moonlight. But I could be emperor of the world, and I would throw the crown in a midden to keep my husband safe. Love is one of the fundamental forces of magic. I don't really have the sense for it, that's more my husband's field – blasted hippie," he said affectionately, "But Albus sees the good in everyone and when he went to speak with Tom to tell him he was a Hogwarts student his skin was crawling the entire time. At the time, I thought it was hilarious – I wrote him back asking if this meant that he understood now that he shouldn't be so sympathetic to everyone and would stop telling me to have mercy on people who didn't deserve it – but I was in Europe and didn't meet the boy until he was a man and we were on opposite sides of a battlefield.

"He became Lord Voldemort, 'the flight from death,' and his supporters will tell you that he fights to restore 'pureblooded' wizardkind to their 'rightful place of supremacy.' He lies," Grindelwand stated firmly, sweeping his gaze across the room.

"If he fights a muggle-born like you and a pureblood like me, he'll be trying to kill me, not you. Pureblood witches and wizards among his forces die or go mad in ways that utterly disgrace them and the family name. He's wiped out more pureblood families than the muggles ever have. If it weren't for wizards and witches like you, Wizarding Britain would have a _tenth_ the numbers it did when Albus was born, if that. The current lords Black and Malfoy call muggle-born women Mother and give them the same honor as their blood mothers because dwindling numbers made their parents attempt pregnancy at so young an age that they became incapable of carrying children to term, and if they hadn't been able to find skilled witches willing to be surrogate mothers and adopted them into the family so their magics became compatible with the childrens' magics – which was only possible because those witches were not tied to any family magics of their own – the titles would have gone to collateral branches so distant they don't even bear the names Black or Malfoy.

"If it weren't for children like you, the wizards of Britain would be near extinction." Once again he swept the room, meeting all of their eyes. "Remember this. Do not allow anyone to look down on you, or tell you that you do not belong here. You do not need us. You have places in the muggle world. _We_ need _you_. Magic itself needs you."

"Wizarding Britain thrives because of _you_. Each and every one of you is a savior of the Wizarding World."

Savior of the Wizarding World. Harry had heard himself called that, but somehow it made him sit a little straighter seeing the man meet everyone else's eyes. Like Harry sat among a whole hall full of heroes.

Like he was never alone and never ever _could_ be.

* * *

"Dumbledore and Grindelwald addressed Slytherin's concern about muggle-born instead of _ignoring_ it like Gryffindor did," Draco was saying when they got back to the common room, from where he sat perched on one of the tables like a king on a throne. "These days, muggles treat wizards with the proper respect and you don't have to call the obliviators over every little thing. My sisters can invite girls from the muggle town as well as the estate for their tea parties and _I_ don't have to play with them."

"Yeah, shut it," a dark-skinned boy who'd taken advantage of the fact they didn't have to wear the uniform _yet_ and wore Italian clothing said lazily. "You know how many husbands my mother has had, and I'm an only child. They keep exhausting themselves trying to have proper pureblood children like they'll do as they're told when the first batch of kids didn't," he rolled his eyes, "when they _could_ just find a muggleborn surrogate mother instead of divorcing their wives and losing half the family estate in the process."

Draco nodded, rolling his eyes. "Blaise is right. Mother said Madam Zabini is doing a public service, fleecing those continentals. Not that she's cheating anyone," he said quickly when Blaise raised an eyebrow. "It's not your mother's fault they're fools and their wives should get to enjoy being out in society instead of shackled to someone who thinks they're replaceable like that. My grandfathers didn't divorce their wives: they had _standards_. And what would it matter if they actually _did_ marry a muggle-born? The Malfoy family line goes back centuries. I could marry a _hundred_ muggles, and it wouldn't make my children any less noble. Keep implying that it's _possible_ to make Malfoy blood impure, and I'll be telling my father."

* * *

 _Re-reading, I was uh, should someone be going into this much detail with 11-year-olds? But I was reading Anne McCaffrey well before 11, so. There's a common complaint in the fandom that Harry isn't told enough, so I hope you can excuse me pointing out that the opposite would involve him getting some infodump._

 _I was doing some research for this, and apparently the Malfoys have never had a problem marrying half-bloods, and yet they're still listed among the Sacred Twenty-Eight, the list of families circa the 1930s with supposedly absolutely pure blood, because social class trumped blood purity._

 _The decline of the Gaunts and other pureblood families that only married within a tiny gene pool, commonly resorting to cousins, left the Blacks and the Malfoys the clear winners among wizarding nobility – the Malfoys, at least, outlasting the others by marrying half-bloods instead of inbreeding. They immigrated from France and may not have been all that taken in by Britain's anti-muggleborn sentiment._

… _While the Potters, who actually_ were _pure-blood, were left off the list of pure-blood families for being too liberal._

 _So the Malfoys' allegiance to Voldemort should have been more about 'our lessers' in terms of social class, as Draco had no right to look down on a half-blood (not that anyone has the right to look down on anyone for the circumstances of their birth). Although I'm sure they were trying very hard to conceal that part of the family history._

 _Draco is still very classist – I'm not here to make people perfect – but noblesse oblige, while insulting, is much less bad than thinking it's okay to torture people for fun. This is a better world, not a perfect one where one of the worst parts of human nature just magically went away because of two people._


	4. Chapter 4

"And along this hall is the White Lady's room," Argus told them. "Walk up and down the corridor three times thinking that you want to see her – I'll only demonstrate for you once!" He did so, and then a door appeared.

He used the bumblebee doorknocker and a voice called, "Come in!"

Argus opened the door and waved the children in.

Harry blinked, and blinked again. "Feels weird," Ron said, rubbing his upper arms.

"I'm afraid that's on my account," said a white-haired woman sitting by the fire, on a couch next to a ghost. She smiled at them apologetically. "My magic's a little messed up, so the room creates magical flows that untangle it for me." She smiled at them, exactly like a grandmother. "Why don't you children come and sit down? I always love to have visitors."

Draco stood in front of her and bowed. "Ariana Dumbledore? My name's Draco Malfoy."

"Look at you!" She looked delighted, and Harry could see the resemblance to Albus in the sparkles. "You're the spitting image of your father. And… hmm." She laughed brightly. "You're certainly a Black, but for some reason you remind me of Nymphadora instead of Narcissa…"

Draco brightened.

She laughed animatedly, covering her mouth with a fan. "They're going to keep mistaking you for a half-veela when you grow up, aren't they you handsome young man?"

"I'm too old to be a metamorphmagus," he said, but, "Do you think…"

"I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to became an animagus, if the shape-shifting power is that close to the surface. Isn't Nymphadora a delight?"

"I know! My Mother thought the power had gone out of her family, and then it shows up in a half-blood? Father thinks that the Blacks are like the Malfoys, with so many alliance marriages that we have a half-dozen family magics and some of them suppress each other." Then he blushed. "Sorry, Lady Ariana."

"No, no! It's wonderful to hear a young man being so enthusiastic about my little theories on the preservation and health of inborn magics! I was _so_ embarrassed when that reprobate Gellert went and had my thesis published without even _telling_ me, but it's so worth it to see a talent like Nymphadora's come back into the world."

"Harry's a _parseltongue!"_

Ariana held her fan over her mouth again and gasped with delight. "No!" Draco simply _had_ to be teasing her.

"Harry, come over here! Oh, forgive me Lady Ariana. These are Crabbe and Goyle, my liegemen, Hermione – she's a genius – and the sixth Weasley." AKA 'you poor bastard, I have three younger sisters, I can't even _imagine_ what it must be like to have _six_ siblings, and most of them older. At least you can get away from younger ones.'

The way those two talked about their huge families made more sense to Harry now after hearing about Voldemort and what happened to the purebloods. Half 'it's _such_ a pain and imposition' and half bragging about how their families were huge and would totally kick your arse. Although maybe Harry kind of got that, when he'd never worried about bullies because Dudley could kick everyone's ass. Dudley's name meant that bullies went after him first before bothering Harry, so Dudley didn't mind having an uncool name because it meant he got to fight people who deserved what was coming to them.

* * *

Fawkes took off from Dumbledore's arm, flying up into the middle of the room and circling. Everyone quieted.

"If I may have your attention," the Headmaster said, "Professor Babbage is forced to miss most of summer school every year because of the need to keep up with current events. She's joined us today to give you a brief orientation, and she'll be taking a discussion group in the afternoon if anyone has questions. If you'll pack up your things, I'll be leading you to her classroom in one minute."

Professor Babbage was so full of enthusiasm and goodwill that when she and Dumbledore twinkled at each other, it was hard to tell who won. She even had a peace sign and some other buttons on her hat, too!

"Good morning, class," she said, still full of cheer, "And thank you, Headmaster."

"I'm always glad to see such enthusiasm for the subject in one of our staff members – and I don't need to drag you away from your work nearly as often as Severus." Dumbledore chuckled, and shut the door behind him.

"My name is Professor Charity Babbage, and as Social Studies professor, it's my job to give you the firm foundation in history, social matters and current events necessary to accomplish your goals and contribute to Wizarding Society," she told them. "First year starts with a brief overview of world history and how it's affected the social mores of both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds so that you know enough to comport yourself properly and intelligently anywhere in Britain. We try to present First Years with material that will be of use to them for their entire lives, so I do recommend paying attention in class, it will make things much easier for you."

She nodded at them, and then turned to the board on the right to start making a bullet point list. "Then, Second Year goes back to the beginning, with what is known of the origins of humanity, the other sapient races and magic itself. The practical covers relations with magical beings. Third Year covers the beginning of recorded history to the withdrawal of Rome from the British Isles. The practical covers functioning in muggle British society. Fourth covers Merlin and the start of tensions between muggles and Wizards and how it culminated in the founding of Hogwarts, which we will also cover. The practical covers functioning in magical society. Fifth Year covers the effect of Hogwarts on Wizarding Britain, the rise of similar institutions, and the renewed Witch Hunts that occurred when the Black Plague killed off so many serfs that the muggle noblility decided to stamp out trained Healers and how this led to the International Statute of Secrecy. The practical covers international magical relations.

"Sixth year covers the effects of the Statute of Secrecy on the Magical World and wizard-muggle relations, up to current events. The practical covers non-British muggle relations. Seventh year NEWT classes will be covering it all again, in more depth, with an eye to locating underlying trends and doing original research. The practical covers adapting to changes in various societies." She turned to them. "Social Studies also serves the same role at Hogwarts that writing and composition classes serve at other schools. The majority of your homework will be essays, giving you practice supporting your arguments logically, judging the reliability of your sources of information and communicating your position clearly. If you plans for the future involve a political career, a research field or a position in business, NEWT-level Social Studies is _highly_ recommended. NEWT classes are the equivalent of Muggle University courses, and if you aren't taking the Social Studies NEWT course you will have to learn how to write at that level on your own, because the examiners _will_ take points off for failure to present your work in a professional manner."

Harry heard Hermione let out a sigh of relief as she wrote furiously.

"While your professors in non-NEWT courses and the OWL examiners won't quite go _that_ far, paying attention to your Social Studies homework and following those guidelines when you do homework for other classes will improve your grades. For the same reason, I recommend legible handwriting. I dread to think how many people have lost points because of what seemed to be spelling errors." She shuddered. "If you need additional tutoring in composition or any other subject covered at Hogwarts, Miss Pince keeps a list of upper-year students and should be able to match you with someone in your house. Don't hesitate to make use of the tutoring system – the school handles repayment of tutors, and a lot of them use it to study or refresh their memory of the material themselves. One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it – and I'm not only saying that because I am a teacher!"

She sparkled at them again. "Now, let me cover one more thing to give us a conversation topic, and then I'll open the floor." She went to the middle board this time and started to write a quote: 'Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Clarke's Third Law.'

"There's a form of literature best called 'speculative fiction' that grew out of muggle scientific advances. They wondered what effect these new powers would have on their world and how they lived. For instance, muggles learned to command the lightning, and now they use it to make light and heat at the flick of a switch. They also examined stories in which people had magic. Arthur C. Clarke is one of the major Speculative Fiction authors.

"When wizards say technology, usually we mean 'what muggles use to do things because they don't have magic.' The definition of technology in use here is more along the lines of 'a means of accomplishing a task through the practical application of knowledge and skill.'" This also went on the board. "Let give you an example," she told them. "I don't feel like walking over there to get my bag… Wingardium Leviosa!" As she flourished her wand, the bag flew over onto the table in front of the blackboard. "Here, I had a task – getting the bag. I knew that levitation was a way of getting the bag to me – practical knowledge. I then used a _skill_ a wizard invented in the past to accomplish my goal – that being Wingardium Leviosa."

She held up her wand. "I also made use of a tool – wandmakers have been studying the interactions of magic with various substances and constructions to give wizards the best, most advanced wands and other equipment to work with for thousands of years. That makes is a very advanced technology indeed."

"To muggles in the past, magic was an inexplicable thing, that seemed no different from working miracles – which is part of what caused the trouble with the new religion.

'Miracle vs. Technology' went on the left whiteboard. "What is the difference between these two views of magic? A miracle is something inexplicable, while technology requires knowledge, at least of practical application – I don't need to know the minutae of wand-making to use a wand any more than most muggles understand how their cars function.

Under miracle went 'someone else did it' and 'no wizards know how it works' and under technology 'wizards did it through their own skill and effort' and 'the knowledge of wizards makes it possible.'

"At first, being called a miracle-worker seems like flattery, but it's a bit insulting, isn't it?" she said, pointing at the board. "So, why did muggles make that mistake? First, most of what they saw was accidental magic. Young witches and wizards don't have control over their accidental magic, they need to _learn_ about it (she underlined 'knowledge and skill') in order to _use_ it to get things done. Observing magical children, it looked to them as though some higher power was protecting the child. A reasonable theory, when early witches came to the same conclusion and often worshipped whatever being they thought was keeping them alive. 'Random events' can be called miracles – they're caused by chance or the child's survival instinct, they're not skillfully controlled. The kind of magic you'll be learning at Hogwarts will be under _your_ command, and you'll be able to make use of it your entire life instead of relying on the whim of some other power.

"The word 'magic' is also used dismissively by muggles to imply there's no skill involved with it, or real understanding. You just wave your wand and something impossible happens, 'too easily' instead of _made_ easy by working smart." She tapped her forehead. "To a muggle with no understanding of how electricity is controlled, flicking a light switch is that kind of magic – a simple movement commands great power, but without any knowledge on that muggle's part, and not a great deal of skill, either.

"That's an example of how technology advanced enough to make things look easy," the words 'Sufficiently advanced technology' went up, "Can be mistaken for 'magic' by an ignorant observer. Or perhaps a miracle – someone calling on a higher power to do something beyond their comprehension, and if it doesn't work they don't have the knowledge or skill with electronics to make it work."

So "'Sufficiently advanced technology' can be mistaken for 'a miracle," said the board.

"While I used an example of ignorance that could be remedied by picking up some books, if we observe a technology that we can't use or understand, and yet it works, then to us it is 'magic' by that definition. A way of calling on some other power, not our own effort, to accomplish tasks. Rephrasing the quote,"

She wrote, "If technology is advanced enough, it'll look like 'magic' to someone who doesn't understand it."

"But the reason I brought this quote to your attention is that:

"In the past, magic was already so advanced that those who didn't have the knowledge to understand it thought it was 'a miracle,'" also went up on the board.

"This misunderstanding has been a major cause of muggles getting the wrong ideas about witches and wizards. The founders understood that magic was technology well before muggles started using the word – that's why they founded Hogwarts, so they could give you _knowledge_ that would let you _skillfully_ harness your power to _accomplish_ great things. We might be born with power, but without that knowledge it can be useless or even harmful to us. We witches weren't simply handed everything on a silver platter: it has taken centuries of effort for us to understand our power well enough for a Magical society to exist."

Harry didn't need to look over to see that Malfoy was nodding proudly.

"As muggles continue to improve their ability to command the lightning and witches and wizards refine our understanding of magic to create ever more powerful and versatile spells, the world continues to advance. Things that are impossible today will be possible a decade from now, the way many of the spells and devices in use today did not exist when I was a child. In my parents' day, the spells they learned at Hogwarts were all they needed for their entire lives. You, children, will have the immense _privilege_ of learning new spells your entire lives. Becoming capable of new and amazing things every year of what I hope are long, exciting lives." She surveyed the room, hoping to share her delight with them. "Anything you wish to say, class?"

A forest of hands went up, Harry's among them.

"Ah, that's what I like to see! The witch in the third row, next to Mr. Malfoy: introduce yourself please."

Draco quickly elbowed her as Hermione shot up out of her seat. " _Introduction!_ " he hissed.

She swallowed and pulled herself together. "My name is Hermione Granger, Professor. You mentioned both wizarding advances and technological devices, but then you only mentioned us learning spells. The letter said that we couldn't bring electronic devices here?"

When the Professor sighed, Hermione sent back down and started counting on her fingers.

Draco held up his under the table. "Three sentences, perfect," he said very softly, since that carried less far than whispering. "That's seventeen books now?"

"The bane of my existence… Most of our professors can conduct research at Hogwarts, and I can get current events and advances in the Wizarding World delivered here for study, but modern technology! I'm afraid it's not electronics, it's possible to turn on a light bulb with a battery and the proper configuration of wire. They first noticed a problem with radio signals – the Wizarding Wireless was invented by muggleborn students who didn't want to give up their ham radio hobby when they attended Hogwarts. Passing through any degree of magical field leeches information from radio signals, it's responsible for a great deal of static – sound distortion – even in the muggle world. The real problem is the computer chips. Every muggle device worth using has them these days, and a computer is a _thinking_ device. A device that thinks without being alive or aware, but magic interacts with _thought_ in fascinating ways. The invention of computer chips has been a great help to magical researchers, in fact, because they're able to do countless experiments without need for human or animal subjects.

She looked around the room, frowning a little for the first time, looking worried. "Some people have tried to enchant computers to make them 'alive,' at least to the same degree as the portraits. Do _not_ , or you will be hauled in by the Ministry _immediately_. Professor Flitwick will cover the basic theory – you'll learn more if you take arithmancy, but 'don't trust anything that thinks if you can't see where it keeps its brain' is a saying for _good reason_. Computers are very easy to enchant, because they do whatever humans tell them to do, but it's that very malleable innocence that makes it impossible to prevent things from going wrong. The muggles are working on developing computers with more of a mind – we're all interested to see what happens with those, but for now, do _not_ cast spells on anything electronic – a lot of devices that aren't computers contain computer chips. Mr. Weasley's father is a very nice man, but he _will_ come down on you like a ton of bricks if you put yourself in danger like that."

* * *

 _The Malfoys and Blacks like to humblebrag that they're just_ too _overwhelmingly powerful and magical and it's such a hassle that they can't use all their powers because they have too many to count. Nymphadora is evidence for this –_ other _families may decide to worry about the children being less magical if they marry muggleborns or even outright muggles, but it's a fact that the Blacks need to dilute their awesome because otherwise they're just_ too _awesome._


	5. Chapter 5

_Britain's wizarding population is so much larger partially due to having a Summer of Love where HP 'verse had a war, but it also became a refuge for wizard-muggle couples and a place for wizarding governments to send muggleborn children they didn't want to educate but didn't want to leave in the muggle population either in case they led to a breach of the Statutes._

* * *

The first time Harry went to Professor Lupin's introduction, he knew Defense was going to be the _best_ class, even if his parents liked other classes better. There was even going to be a class in dueling!

The second time Harry followed Professor Lupin's group, they went outside the building to a field full of people and their dogs. There were a few adult dogs, but most of them weren't full-grown, it didn't look like.

Only a few of them were tiny puppies – most of them were half-grown, but still puppies even though they were way bigger than Aunt Marge's puppies.

"In addition to the soon-to-be First Years, Hogwarts also hosts the Werewolf Summer Camp," Professor Lupin told them. "The werewolf curse gives its victims innate magic, if they didn't have it already, and sometimes can 'wake up' the power of people with very strong latent energies. Some people have become werewolves so that they could be wizards," he said, as some of the werewolves sniffed him hello, wagging their tails. "But all werewolves have enough protective magic to attend Hogwarts."

There were a few full-grown wolves there too, some of them with saddles on their backs. A lady in a bright yellow reflective dress was sitting saddleside, the better to provide a lap for a snoozing black wolf cub. Other adult humans were carrying backpacks and walking sticks, or kneeling down to hand out treats.

"In addition to the Wolfsboon Potion, there's also a charm that allows werewolves to change at will," Professor Lupin explained, tugging a white moon-shaped pendant out from under his clothing and transforming.

The tail-wagging intensified, and Lupin had to remove a pup from his shoulders when he turned back into a human. "The Werewolf Summer Camp gives everyone a chance to run around a bit with their families, and learn or brush up on the skills that are useful to a werewolf. During the school year, a few of your classmates will be excused from class to spend the Full Moons with myself and Professor Hagrid, although I'm afraid they'll have to make up for the classtime they miss in extra homework."

Oh. So becoming a werewolf meant more homework.

"If you look over there," Professor Lupin pointed, "The groundsspiders are setting up an obstacle course." There were four large poles set into the ground – they looked like permanent fixtures, and the spiders wearing the Hogwarts crest were bringing logs from the forest and weaving them into a maze of tubes and slides and ladders suspended from lines connecting the tops of the poles and Harry vibrated on his feet a little, because he _really_ wanted to climb around in there. "If you want to run it with the puppies and the hatchlings, Aragog – she's the mother of the groundsspiders – is sitting on that green cushion over there. She'll be letting us know when it's ready. Does anyone have any questions?"

"By the way, Mr. Potter," Professor Lupin asked while Harry was waiting for the chance to go into the obstacle course, "Have you met Sirius yet?"

"I don't think so, sir?"

Professor Lupin frowned slightly.

* * *

"So Harry, how are you finding Hogwarts?" was the question when Harry Potter had his meeting with the Headmaster towards the end of the Summer Term.

"Your sister, I mean, Lady Ariana," she'd been _knighted_ for her research, and she'd mentioned that something Harry's Mum was working on had been up for consideration! "Is very nice. So are the house elves!" Dudley was _so_ jealous of the food here – he had to eat a lot because of all that muscle, to the point that Aunt Petunia had started to get a little worried that Harry was serving himself so little compared to Dudley and had asked him to try to eat more until Harry got a little chubby.

Dumbledore smiled, happy to hear that, so Harry went on. "Professor Lupin is really nice too." They'd gotten to pet the werewolf with Hagrid's supervision, and Ron said that in some of the DADA training you'd get to play with him, er, try not to get pounced. "Professor Snape said that my Mom was really good in potions so he's expecting good things from me or else, and Professor McGonagall said that Dad was good at transfiguration!" Ollivander had said that Dad's wand was good for transfiguration, so that made sense. And oh! "Professor Pomfrey said my wand should be good for healing as well as Defense." And healing was like potions and turning people's bodies into healthy ones, right? That was both his parents! So he could be a knight who defeated evil _and_ one of the wizards who helped sick people!

"Professor Hagrid introduced me to a lot of snakes, and said he'd write me a note so I could bring one of them to school if I wanted." Harry _did_ want, it was just so hard to pick! "Professor Flitwick showed us really cool stuff you could do with charms, and Professor Pomfrey gave us plants I could give to Aunt Petunia," who really liked to garden and was tickled pink to have another to add to her collection of magical South American petunias. Harry hadn't known that Petunias symbolized 'demonic' magical power! It was silly to think that people used to think magic was _evil_ but it was still cool that his grandparents gave her such a good name for a witch! Aunt Petunia would have made a totally _wicked_ witch.

"Did your Aunt ever tell you that she used to grow potions ingredients?" Dumbledore asked him.

Harry shook his head.

"During the war, we were worried that the gardens here and St. Mungo's might be attacked. Lily was also worried that your aunt and her parents might be attacked for being related to a first-generation witch, so she cast a lot of protective spells. One of the things that came up is that your Aunt is what we call a squib – someone with magic in their blood, but the power is latent and they can't control it. However, because they do have magic, squibs can still nurture magical plants and make some potions. Your Aunt started growing potions ingredients to help out her sister and her friend Snape, and they discovered she had quite the green thumb! When she took you in, she stopped working with magical plants and we put the farm out in Surrey in Snape's name so it wasn't connected to her, but I'm sure Pomona would be delighted if your Aunt started to work with her again. There haven't been many squibs born to wizarding families recently," Dumbledore said, and Harry hoped that it wasn't because there weren't as many wizarding families to have babies after Voldemort, "but if the Founders could decide to give magical educations to first generation wizards, perhaps Hogwarts could begin giving magical educations to latent wizards from a muggle background!"

Harry's eyes widened. "Cousin Dudley?" They could go to school together?

"He would be one of the first to get a letter, when he's already from a family that's part of our world and has proven its loyalty to the country, but with Tom still out there…" Albus frowned. "Latent wizards don't have accidental magic protecting them when they're children. We've been working towards setting up a squib education problem for decades, and ensuring their safety is the largest hurdle even without the risk of attacks from those who want to destroy magical children from non-wizarding families. If we set up a school for latent wizards so they can have an environment less dangerous than Hogwarts, it would need very strong wards of a new design – we can't use Hogwarts' wards, they're designed to optimize the protective power of magical children. If you're interested in the details, why don't you ask Ronald Weasley? His older brother Bill started helping with the project even before he graduated – he has a real talent for reverse-engineering wards."

"Then there'd be even more magical people," Harry realized. "More people could be magical."

"Lemon drop?" After Harry nodded and took one, Albus chuckled. "Yes, Gellert has that effect on people. When we were teenagers he was thinking of leading an army. I thought he was so impressive at that age… then he moved into my house so we could work on research together and I could still look after Ariana and he would never pick his clothes up off the floor or do the dishes." He smiled nostalgically. "I finally understood why Aberforth – my brother – wanted to strangle him so much. I got over my starry-eyed infatuation and realized that Gellert – while I love him dearly – is a bit of a jerk. I found myself wondering 'do _I_ treat people like that?' and honestly I did, I was overly impressed with my intelligence when I was younger, and was so horrified I started making an effort to be a better person. There's a movie one of my students gave me with a giant magical rabbit that contains the line 'I have tried being bright, and I have tried being pleasant.' I do find that being kind is a genius all its own."

"Is that why wizards started healing people even when it was illegal?" Harry asked.

Albus nodded. "So many wizards grew up without ever meeting muggles. A chance to see that they were people too, and how they were suffering without spells we took for granted… And what they achieved despite their lack of magic." He chuckled. "I remember when Professor Bagshot dragged us to the World's Fair. Gellert was absolutely _furious_ that no one ever told him the muggles had marvels like that – the only muggles we'd met were… Not very educated or open-minded. So it was easy for us to think that they hadn't changed at all since the Statute of Secrecy became necessary. Gellert had plans, and knowing they were based on inaccurate information we started reading up on science and engineering and traveling to see more lectures and exhibitions. When I met Gellert, it was wonderful to have a friend who understood my research and could make insightful comments, and I met a great many young men, so passionate about their work, and I realized what a shame it was that I couldn't tell them about mine."

* * *

 _Since the wizarding world wasn't looking for a savior with no war on the horizon, Albus Dumbledore was seen as a genius, but a theory and hippie love person, not anything practical or violent like_ dueling _. It was a bit of a surprise to Tom that his Transfiguration Professor was secretly badass. Albus wanted to help Gellert test out just how invincible the Elder Wand_ really _was, you see, so he ended up inventing a lot of nasty tricks of the 'if you're not cheating you're not trying' variety. If anything, not using spells that might actually hurt Gellert just meant he had to get creative… It's a lot harder to subdue an opponent without damaging them than it is to kill them. It's legend in this Wizarding World that no one's managed to make Albus duel 'seriously' and break out the potentially fatal spells._

 _Gellert and Dumbledore were both starved for people they could talk to, to the point that a lot of why they bonded when meeting each other was the realization that they were not alone. For a lot of people, college is when they get to experience knowing a lot of people who are like them – when they found out about Muggle scientific circles Gellert was like 'yesssss more Albuses…_ WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T KEEP THEM?' _While Albus became more aware that Gellert was not the only other hot male genius in existence and he was allowed to have standards._


	6. Chapter 6

Harry arrived in the Great Hall to see a clump of people in the open space between the house tables and the Professors' table. They let him in to see Draco and Hermione on their knees with a basket of colored chalk Hermione must have brought from home, drawing on the flagstones with serious expressions while Professor Gellert looked on approvingly.

Harry was relieved they weren't going to get in trouble.

Malfoy was drawing a map, with a picture of a big house labeled Malfoy Manor in the middle, with patches marked for different terrain and things like greenhouses. There was also a village and some cottages, and right now he was drawing arrows between them and the manor, and words like 'floo' and 'portkey.' Half the arrows weren't actually going to the manor, but to a smaller house next to it.

There were pieces from at least three different Wizarding chess sets in the area where Hermione worked, bashing each other and running from box to box as she scrambled to draw lines and write instructions.

She was biting her lip and didn't seem know-it-all at all, just working _really really hard_ with a worried crease on her face.

"For our new arrivals, Mr. Malfoy has been kind enough to show us the evacuation and defense system the House of Malfoy used in the last war. They invited several families to live in the manor for the duration, and employed many of them in helping set up defenses, lay in stocks of supplies and set up means by which the rest of the population could evacuate to the manor in the event of attack."

Right, the Malfoys were lords, and that was what lords were supposed to do in medieval times, let people take shelter in the castle.

"Meanwhile, Miss Granger has a map and chess pieces enchanted to simulate the forces involved on the fourth attack on Malfoy Manor during the war. Right now, she's on her fifth loss against the invaders."

From the way Hermione looked at that, yes, she knew she was losing, but she straightened her shoulders and frowned and kept going, writing quickly and fiercely.

"These are practice matches for the purpose of familiarizing Ms. Granger with her forces – I don't expect her or anyone to be able to mount a credible defense until Mr. Malfoy finishes his own work and comes to her assistance. That is because right now Ms. Granger is taking on the role of Lady Narcissa Malfoy ne Black, who commanded the manor's defenders until her unexpected pregnancy forced her to retire to St. Mungo's and put her brother Regulus Black and his fiance Alastor Moody, now Head Auror, in command. It was the combination of Lady Malfoy's ability to quickly create and execute innovative tactical plans and her husband's mastery of the house wards and other home ground advantages that allowed them to hold the manor despite the breeches in their defenses necessary to let civilians take shelter there. The purpose of the exercise is to show the difference between a fight on unknown ground, which Ms. Granger started out with, ground where _some_ of the local resources are known and made use of – for instance, the house elves were added to the board when Ms. Granger asked what they would be doing during the battle – and prepared and fortified ground."

He looked around the group. "I expect all of you from wizarding families to become familiar with your house wards between now and the start of term. The purpose of Defense Against The Dark Arts is not wand-waving and dramatic battles against the forces of evil: the purpose of Defense Against The Dark Arts is _defense_. As Professor Lupin has already informed you, your accidental magic helps protect you from harm, but you don't yet have the magical strength or training to even _think_ about participating in combat. This makes this the perfect age for you to learn the importance of wards and other passive defenses and how to make use of them to protect not just yourself, but others.

" _Someone_ ," Professor Gellet's eyes flickered over to the left, and Harry saw Ron gulp. "Said that sounded boring, even though a certain person's mother is the greatest Homemaker in more than three hundred years. Or perhaps it is _because_ his mother is so good at her job that her waiting list is forty years long that her child grew up in a house as magical and well-warded as an ancient manor despite only being built twenty years ago."

He looked back at Draco. "Still, even the best wards can be bypassed if their master is careless, and no matter how powerful the enchantments woven into a building like Hogwarts, Malfoy Manor or the Burrow are, they're useless if no one knows how to use them. A family like the Malfoys has had a long time to master the use of their wards, discover flaws and correct them. Right now, Ms. Granger is facing overwhelming odds – if they _weren't_ overwhelming odds, the enemy forces wouldn't have dared commit so much of their forces to an organized attack on an old wizarding house like this. Once Mr. Malfoy joins the defense, and the two of them are able to coordinate tactics, I expect to see strategems like Mr. Malfoy setting up choke points so Ms. Granger's forces can pick the enemy off one by one, and Ms. Granger drawing the enemy into positions where Mr. Malfoy can make quick work of them."

" _Wicked,_ " Dean said, and stuck his hand in the air.

"Yes, Mr. Thomas, you _will_ get to play. Once Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy have thoroughly routed the enemy, any volunteers will be taking the role of civilians either already living in the manor or evacuating to it. If you are able to contribute to the defense, you will be allowed to take the role of a defender under Ms. Granger's - Lady Narcissa's – command in the next round."

* * *

"And what have we learned?" Professor Gellert asked two hours later.

Harry wasn't the only one desperately blushing and glancing at Hermione and Draco, who looked like they were trying not to scream. They'd totally kicked arse last round, after a couple of rounds of Draco and Hermione figuring out what the other one could do and trying stuff out, and then Harry tried to help.

"Anyone?"

Ron raised his hand.

"Mr. Weasley?"

"Stay out of the way if you don't know what you're doing," he said, looking at Hermione and Draco hoping they'd hear him being the one to say it as an apology.

"Don't feel _too_ bad, Mr. Weasley. In real life, this attack leveled an entire wing and made inroads into the main house: helping the Malfoys figure out how to rebuild started your mother's career. Wizarding Britain had been at peace for decades. All the adult wizards there had taken Defense Against The Dark Arts, but there's a big difference between a classroom environment or the occasional magical creature and fighting an organized force with the same training you have and more experience in how to use it. The Malfoys and their volunteer force knew that by allowing people to take shelter on short notice they were increasing their own risk of death." He looked at Malfoy.

"That was the _point_ ," Draco said. "If the village could hold off an army, they wouldn't have needed to leave their homes. Risking our lives to protect people who can't protect themselves without leadership and Manor wards is what makes a Great House a Great House, going back to the Pharaohs. That's what Pharaoh _means_ , Great House."

Professor Gellert nodded and took the opportunity for a history lesson. "That's why the Pharaohs married within their families, even though they were aware of the risk of squibs and children with health problems after thousands of years. They couldn't risk losing attunement to those early house and Blood Wards when they had turned extending their protection over thousands of people into an art form." Turning back to Ron, he said, "Your heart was in a right place – a very Gryffindor place – and I'm pleased to see that you've learned one of the lessons I wanted this exercise to teach all of you. Another is to consider what your side's goal is and what the enemy's goal is. It's laudable to want to help, just be _smart_ about it. If the enemy's goal is to get you, then making sure that the enemy can't find you _is_ helping the defenders. Yes, Mr. Thomas?"

"How much danger are our families in because we're wizards."

Professor Grindlewald looked at him and nodded. "Ten points to whichever house you end up in, Mr. Thomas. I'm sure Helga would be pleased. You might want to consider a career as an auror. If you're interested, I can go over the current declassified reports on threats to Wizarding England with you, or see about getting you a meeting with a senior auror. There is no current credible threat because they can't afford to lose the manpower, but we are dealing with idiots." Who might take it into their minds to do anything. "While 'if you want peace prepare for war' is nonsense, one of the best ways to keep cowards and bullies from making trouble is to make it _very clear_ that they're not going to get away with anything. That makes the protection of the families of muggle-born students an important part of England's national security. If they _dare_ go after a family like yours, the Aurors are going to make damn sure they're utterly crushed and don't even manage to harm a hair on your family's heads, in order to teach those idiots what happens when they mess with Wizarding Britain.

"That's been the case for decades, so though we haven't been dumb enough to relax our guard, the enemy has shifted their focus to families that are part of the Wizarding World – smaller families have fewer combatants and less power to put into house wards. Conservative Wizarding Europe has a feudal structure for governing as well as defensive purposes and isn't fond of 'Free Cities' – Wizarding towns that are run by an elected town council instead of a hereditary Lord. They think it gives the commoners _ideas_. One of the reasons the Malfoys were a priority target in the last war is that they _defend_ the wizards of the Stonehenge area without forcing the inhabitants into serfdom 'in exchange.'" Draco rolled his eyes.

"Your family lives in the London Metropolitan Area – an attack there would draw a rapid response from both the Ministry security forces and House Black. House Black has coordinated the magical defenses of London since the Blitz – your family should already have received a packet on what to do in case of attacks by dark wizards or nuclear weapons and an invitation to meet with Lord Sirius Black to discuss warding and defensive measures. Lord Black is a veteran of the Wizarding War and is known for… _inventive_ traps. He was quite the prankster while he was at Hogwarts."

Gellert _smiled_. "In short, Mr. Thomas, Wizarding England protects families like yours by making _very_ sure that anyone who tries it will have their arse kicked up between their ears and they know it. Even fanatics who want to die for their cause want to accomplish _something_ before they die, so they avoid absolutely useless deaths." Transfiguring one of the chairs into a chalkboard, he wrote 'Phase one.' "In the last war, first Lord Run Away got a lot of young people to listen to his ideology and buy into it with flattery, then he got them drunk and they woke up with a tattoo that would let him kill them whenever he wished to and found out they'd become accessories to the murder of innocent people. A lot of the British Death Eaters, like Peter Pettigrew, were insecure teenagers who were manipulated into thinking that their friends and family would be too disgusted to help them and they really had no alternative other than buying into Lord Coward's ideology – the man was a master of classic abuse tactics.

Phase 2. "As he got his hooks deeper into them, he decided that a better way to force them to 'realize' they had no way to turn back was for them not just to kill 'muggles,' who many didn't see as 'real' people, but the families of their own schoolmates, and families just like theirs. That was when we started getting attacks on Muggleborns – when he'd had his 'force' for awhile, had more time to radicalize them and accustom them to obeying."

Phase 3. "There was already a manhunt underway for the criminals – muggle-wizard relations are vital to our future – but the attacks on fellow wizards and their families turned it from serial killing to terrorism. This was when Continental conservatives started to take part in attacks, so that the aurors would focus on that and fail to realize that we were under attack from inside as well until Lord Coward – who was focusing on pureblood wizards – controlled the Wizengamut by killing off wizarding families until his servants became the heirs."

Phase 4. "Once the public began to blame the Continentals, this was when there began to be pitched battles in the streets – many of them had been raised to believe that they were 'noble' and refused to use underhanded tactics. It soon became clear that there were two different groups here, with two different modus operandi.

"Sirius Black, a known party animal, succeeded in infiltrating the Death Eaters by getting drunk at the wrong party and being told he was now incriminated and conscripted. When he refused to comply, he was placed under the Imperius Curse. Peter Pettigrew, a friend from Hogwarts, was so horrified by what happened to Sirius that he, who had more time to observe how the Dark Mark identified and detected treason, was able to make contact with Lady Ariana and Professor Severus. Professor Severus had a well-known vendetta against Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, so when he went out of his way to fight them everyone thought it was personal reasons instead of a chance to study the Dark Mark.

"Because of his desire to destroy purebloods, Lord Coward did not keep Sirius Black under constant Imperius, but kept him in the dungeons between missions and public appearances, in order to use the Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black as a 'ringleader' if it became necessary to pin the blame on someone. He told Mr. Black that if he broke out or tried anything, his younger brother Regulus would be next. In order to protect him Peter played the model Death Eater and told Sirius about the opposition to the Death Eaters and how determined their friends were to rescue him."

"Then, Sirius Snape and Albus Dumbledore heard a prophecy about Voldemort's downfall. The prophecy was ambiguous – ah, divination – but if Voldemort knew about it, he would target any children who could be the one named in the prophecy.

"Peter Pettigrew claimed to have overheard the prophecy, and was made the secret keeper of Godric's Hallow. Voldemort sent the Lestranges after another family, but personally led the attack on the Potters, bringing Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black with him in order to use Sirius Black to kill his best friend, James Potter.

"But Voldemort did _not_ apparate them to the home of the Potters. Instead he cast a confundus on Peter Pettigrew and when his head cleared, he found himself inside the home of the Dumbledore family, which had been heavily warded for the sake of Ariana, whose presence has interesting effects on magic – you'll be learning more about that in Arithmancy. While the house had no secret keeper, the wards had been expanded to protect the Potters as well, and we could be certain that no one would detect this thanks to Ariana.

"Both Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black were the blood brothers of James Potter – they and Remus Lupin were inseparable. Voldemort was able to use them to get past the wards, and revealed that he had used legimency to extract what Peter told Sirius from Sirius' mind. Peter and James tried to hold off Voldemort and Sirius, but Peter was killed by Sirius and James by Voldemort. Knowing of Lady Ariana's particular power – because I'd published her research – Voldemort had Sirius curse her, and non-lethally in case the karmic burden transferred to the one who gave the order. Then Lord Coward went upstairs, cast Avada Kedavra on a mother and then her child. The Avada Kedavra somehow reflected off the Potter Heir's forehead and took effect on him instead. Breaking the Imperius Curse and leaving Sirius standing there."

He dropped the chalk onto the shelf at the base of the chalkboard. "And that, Mr. Thomas, is why no one is going to touch a muggleborn family that lives in London. Lily Potter was a muggleborn."

Harry Potter didn't wonder anymore why he'd never met Sirius.

Ron was crying too, and Draco was siffling, clearly trying very very hard not to cry and only barely hanging on.

"He, he tried his best," Draco said, and swallowed. "You can't blame him for not being able to keep things from his friend when he was a Gryffindor."


	7. Chapter 7

"Don't manhandle the poor thing, Severus," Aunt Petunia said sternly, looking behind her as she opened the front door.

Ignoring her, a tall, thin, extremely peeved-looking Professor Snape came in, dragging a large black dog with its legs trussed up behind him as it whimpered pitifully.

"Don't you dare look at me like that," Severus ordered, meeting puppy dog eyes without an ounce of compassion. "Do you know how worried Remus was!"

More whimpering, the dog hanging its head in shame.

"Potter!" Snape yelled.

"Yes, Professor?" Harry said, finally starting to come down the stairs. He'd been going down to dinner when the door opened, and he hadn't wanted to get in the way.

"Meet your dogfather, Sirius Black. He turns into a dog when he's upset. I'm allowing him to stay this way instead of talking to you," Snape said, glaring down at the animal, "because it's not as though he'd say anything intelligent." So it made no difference

"My Dogfather?" Harry asked, automatically reaching so that the dog could sniff the back of his hand – he liked Hagrid's days, and not just because of all the snakes.

"He was named your godfather over _far_ more deserving candidates because your parents were worried about him. After you were born, he was in no condition to take care of anyone, especially himself, so your Aunt had to do his job and I lost my assistant." More annoyance. "He kept making the excuse that he needed to work on his paranoid defensive measures until I was fed up with him worrying Remus with this avoidant behavior." Another glare, and he looked at Harry. "Mr. Potter, how are you finding the reading?"

"Really interesting, Professor! And Aunt Petunia is helping me."

"Good." He nodded. "Remus and I will be making sure that you are a credit to your mother."

"Professor, if you don't mind me asking…" Why a credit to his mother and not his father? Professor McGonagall thought his father was good at her subject. "Professor Gellert said that you didn't like some of my father's friends." Maybe that was why?

"When we were at school, the wolfsbane potion did not yet exist." Professor Snape had invented it. "The Headmaster had to take a lot of precautions to allow Remus to attend Hogwarts, and his condition needed to be kept a secret. Remus entrusted that secret to three friends: Sirius, James Potter and Pettigrew. Your father developed a crush on Lily Evans, my best friend, and started tormenting me out of jealousy, which did _not_ endear him to Lily. The Sirius had the _wonderful_ idea of giving James the opportunity to rescue her from a werewolf. Peter didn't yet have the spine to refuse to go along with him. I was suspicious when I saw James Potter running off and followed. He'd turned into a deer to try to hold poor Remus off her, while she was stuck with his wand. Before long James was injured badly enough he needed to turn back before he went into shock – deer are surprisingly fragile – and since then the three of us shared the special bond of those who have deliberately gotten a werewolf's attention to keep it off the others. You can't go through that sort of thing without becoming friends. Remus was beside himself until a full moon passed without James transforming."

The dog grinned, transformed, and said, "Also you snogged."

"The boy is _eleven_ ," Snape said with a glare.

"When we got there with the professors-"

"You mean when Peter got the professors and Minerva dragged you by the ear-"

"James and Lily were so glad he'd come and helped that they _snogged_ him."

Snape looked absolutely fed up with the world. "Then we found out why Sirius had done it, Lily hexed him – Flitwick had to correct an arm movement, she was using very high-level charms - Slughorn got into an argument about the number of house points, Peter was excused to go subdue a werewolf with grooming and snuggles so hopefully Remus would at least be in a good mood to start off with in the morning, and the whole thing was so absurd I swore off romance."

"And he's been breaking hearts since."

"Who was it who told Witch Weekly that I was still pining over Lily and James?"

The Professor seemed fed up, acted angry, but he wasn't even raising his voice, or going into the low, deadly tones he'd used when someone got into a cupboard and decided to reproduce what they remembered of the potion from MacBeth and he'd described exactly how they could have died. And that was why they needed to practice potions and potion safety now, so it had time to sink in before the accidental magic stopped.

Sirius just grinned, and then he seemed to look around the room, to share the joke, and saw Harry. There was a flash of something that made Harry's chest ache in his eyes, and there was the dog again.

"Sirius does much better when he's thinking of our school days. Or how to kill Death Eaters." Professor Snape patted him on the head.

* * *

"Harry said you're a werewolf, are you _really?"_ Dudley asked Remus Lupin excitedly when two of the professors met them and Professor Snape at the garden shop.

Remus nodded, smiling but looking a tad uncomfortable.

"Wicked! Just like Sir Bedwyr!" Dudley went into an en garde position with his new walking stick before 'sheathing' it.

Remus blinked, and then laughed, surprised but pleased. "I wonder if this is how the Headmaster feels all the time."

"You need to get out more, Remus," Sirius said, clapping him on the shoulder. "I love the younger generation!"

"Sev, this is just too much!" Aunt Petunia protested, trying to force a seed packet back into his hands. "They're far too expensive, and you know how out of practice I am. Let me have some time with Pomona's flowers to get back in practice with all that fuss about channeling before I try something like this!"

"Ignore her, Severus," Vernon said, leaning on his own walking stick. When his wife looked at him, betrayed, he said, "What? Both the boys off to boarding school? You'll be bored stiff, Petunia. Challenge, that's what you need, or your allergies will start acting up again."

"The muggles have a name for that now," Severus said.

"ADD?" Petunia nodded. "Or ADHD, I haven't really needed to get a diagnosis. Poor Dudley was so restless as a child, and I remembered how mad I went when we were staying at poor Sirius' house, and Kreacher so upset if I did so much as wipe down the top few bookshelves!"

"Your idleness allergy does run in families," Professor Severus agreed. "Thank Merlin for Albus' continuing education requirements. Otherwise I might have let my guard down when Molly's eldest few were such a pleasure to have in class. The twins are the second coming of Fabian and Gideon."

"On the one hand, poor Molly, but on the other…"

"That's good to hear," Vernon agreed. "Got them slaving away over a hot cauldron, have you?"

Snape nodded. "They keep daring their housemates to test out the potions for them and they haven't the sense to refuse. I don't see how Minerva can blame _me_ for her being fool enough to take responsibility for all those _Gryffindors."_

Vernon laughed. "Now that sounds familiar. That's why I want to make sure Petunia's got something productive to do. If she hasn't gotten anything to work on she cooks, and I love her cooking almost a tenth as much as I love her." He patted his stomach. "Getting old, you know. Can't pack it away like I used to, and without the boys in the house to help out their old man, got to start exercising again. Can't stand the gym, makes me feel like a hamster. Utter waste of time. Digging lily ponds and hefting trees in the fresh air, that's the ticket."

"Well, if the two of you wouldn't mind taking a look around the old farm," Professor Pomona Sprout said, "Would you mind if I invited Frank and Alice's boy? I'll have to invite Augusta too, I'm afraid, but… Oh, you would not _believe_ what her brother did. Almost made me wish they hadn't gotten rid of the Dementors!"

"Here now," Vernon said, turning to Dudley and Harry. "Remus, mind taking them to find The Dogfather?" Sirius' title made him grin. "We're probably going to be here awhile. That all right with you, Petunia?" he asked his wife.

"Good idea," she agreed. "I thought that lunatic was going to do something stupid and get himself killed the first time we met him, and then that, that…" She bit back her words. "Also I'd rather not have the children here while I find out what that twit Algernon did if it's enough to make Pomona that angry, when she was always so kind when I managed to kill one of her plants. After what he said about Alice when Frank asked her to marry him…"

"Indeed," Remus agreed, and looked at the children. "Come on, we'd better find what Sirius is up to before we wind up with ears and a tail," he said, casting a Point Me spell.

* * *

' _Muggle' ended up being the PC term for… 'differently magical' families because the muggleborns coming into English Wizarding culture during and post the Wizarding Sixties decided to reclaim muggle. So 'muggle' started being used by the pro-integration movement, while the US 'no-maj' was used by those who wanted the groups to be entirely separate and didn't consider muggleborns valid. 'Muggle' on the other hand suggests 'muddle,' meaning there's a mix of magic potentials in there that will sometimes combine into a wizard/witch. So instead of 'all no-majs are the same, no magic, don't belong in our world, simple,' it's 'there's full wizards and then there's this spectrum of complicated stuff.'_

 _Modern squibs actually like the term squib, because the current definition of the word 'squib' is 'a kind of firework' instead of 'weak child.' Squib has been reclaimed in Dumbledore's lifetime but he's still a little uncomfortable about using it because it reminds him of the paternalistic attitude of wizards towards everyone else and he's making an effort to avoid falling into that trap. Squib pride events are very well attended for the fireworks contests – most squibs have enough magic to make magical fireworks, and a lot of them do to demonstrate to themselves and others that they_ can _make magic._

 _Giving muggle-born squibs magical educations en masse is something they've been aiming towards since the beginning, the problem is doing it in a way that keeps them safe both as children and adults – wizarding child-rearing techniques are not safe for squibs, one reason a lot of them were fostered/adopted out, while on the other hand the magical world is dangerous so the school would need to teach squibs how to survive that world so they can exist in it as equals instead of wizards needing to look out for the poor squib. Currently there's an extension of the wizarding primary school system that has a_ very _DADA-heavy curriculum for Wizard-born squibs._

 _This came in_ very _handy when Voldemort's attacks started, because while squibs can't so much cast spells, they can still apply/work with 'passive' magical effects, like healing potions and ward set-ups. The Malfoys have been hiring squibs as retainers/fostering squib children since Lucius was a child – partially at first because you could pay them less and still be considered a philanthropist, and also it gives them someone to be superior to, and the prestige of being rich enough to pay humans for labor a house elf would do for free, but also because squibs can only work with 'passive' magic and therefore specialize in it/get very good at it, so maintaining wards, scrying and other defensive measures is a squib-dominated field – although active spell creation is best done by a specialist witch or wizard like Molly Weasley._


	8. Chapter 8

"I want to be a knight," Harry told the Sorting Hat first thing.

"Well, that _is_ an ambition…" The hat seemed more cheerful than anything. "And you've got a lot of loyalty to your family, especially now that there's more of it, and… well, no, not Ravenclaw. Such a pity about the Granger girl, although I understand the Malfoy insisting on Slytherin even with all that passion for intricate charm-work. But I suppose it will have to be," the next word came aloud, "Gryffindor!"

The same house, the same dorm room his dad once slept in, maybe. He could ask Professor Lupin.

* * *

"Everyone grab your dessert plates and cups of milk!" Dumbledore warned them, before pressing the large red button. The tables popped up and down again, and comfy chairs and big bean bags popped out of the now-carpeted floor like mushrooms.

Draco, Hermione and Ron were all together, along with two of Ron's brothers, the twins Harry saw when he found a chair and looked up at their faces. They were talking a mile a minute, trading sentences while Hermione listened with an avid, focused expression on her face and Draco sulked.

Huh? Harry blinked at him.

"Dumbledore won't let us practice curses or traps on real people, because Muggles don't understand about properly exercising your magic and Muggle-borns might think they're actually being attacked or tormented or something and start fighting back and that ends up in the Hospital Wing. The Twins," Draco said that like a title, "use 'harmless pranks' as testing."

"We want to go into business with our Mum," one of them explained.

"Our house is going to be _so wicked_ ," the other added, grinning.

"Bill's a ward-breaker,"

"But that's the boring part!"

"Creation is so much harder than destruction."

"So if you can create, then you can destroy with style."

"You have to have style."

The two of them nodded at each other.

"I'm not going to be associated with that sort of thing," Draco said. "My little sisters will hear about it when they come to Hogwarts and I'll never hear the end of it, using family magics and spells I'm inventing as a Malfoy for something that's _meant_ not to be taken seriously. Don't talk rubbish about being underestimated." _Again_ , added Draco's peeved expression. "That's for people who think they can avoid being attacked. It'll be my job to be a deterrent. I can't have my charms laughed at, I need them terrifying."

"Fred and George don't you _dare_ talk shop," Percy said. "If I have to listen to one more howler because of you…"

* * *

Tom Marvolo Gaunt was conceived under the effects of a love potion.

By his arithmetic calculations, his mother had ceased taking it well before the date his pompous blood father's diary lamented. Even under the influence, she'd been enough of a canny witch to what? Listen in on her husband's private conference with the doctor?

She might have had her magical childhood stolen from her, just like him, but she was still _Slytherin_.

Voldemort used her surname in his own mind, even though he'd been given the last name of that fool who didn't deserve her feelings. The Gaunts might have fallen far, so Tom couldn't blame a mere muggle for not seeing his mother's inherent magic and 'ruining' her well before that bastard could have…

It _irritated_ him that there was a kind of magic he could never touch, never understand.

It cost him a goddamn war, after all. It made Dumbledore – the first wizard he ever met! The first genius too. The first person who ever _understood_ him… but Dumbledore was magic, and had a very good sense for magical danger after surviving growing up in a house with a sister whose powers weren't under control. Professor Dumbledore wouldn't _talk_ to him. Oh, he was professional in class, answered Tom's questions… but only with the minimum information, when Tom, who had always despised people who didn't understand, had finally found someone he _wanted_ to talk to.

It wasn't illogical for the man not to want him around children. He _had_ already murdered a few. Children dropped dead in orphanages like that one all the time. The trouble was that at the time he didn't understand it was murder.

He _didn't understand_. He could understand Dumbledore not wanting to talk to him, in that light. Had he been as ignorant and incapable of grasping subjects worth talking about as the people in the orphanage to Albus Dumbledore?

It wasn't _fair_ , he'd seethed as a child, when he still expected fairness like the idiots around him. Then he met Gellert Grindlewald, and how unfair it was, for Albus to reject one monster when he'd married another! He knew his own kind… except he also knew, after they'd crossed wands a handful of times, that Gellert was a natural-born monster. And what did that make Tom, something warped and twisted before he was born because of some idiocy called _blood purity?_ When he had the blood of Salazar Slytherin! His mother could have married that muggle and Voldemort would still have been the greatest wizard of his age!

* * *

"These are my sisters," Draco said, pulling a large family portrait out of his pocketbook. Harry loved it and it made him think of Mary Poppins. "You _can_ just come over to the manor, you know," he said grouchily. "School robes are perfectly respectable to wear."

But he didn't really seem to mind, pointing at the portrait without waiting for Harry's response. "My mother and father, of course." Narcissa smiled a hello, regal and somehow motherly in her smugness. Lucius gave a firm nod, face stern and hands clasped on the knob of a walking stick.

"Oh!" Hermione said, leaning in. "Is that…"

"Only half of it," Draco said, glaring at the walking stick. "The _French_ relatives have the other part of the staff. They didn't even have the decency to join You-Know-Who so we could seize it as spoils of war. You need to hurry up and call at the manor, Hermione. Grandfather won't shut up about the family history, he wouldn't care if you're wearing a sack if you know things like that and want to hear his stories."

" _That's_ my cousin," Ron said proudly, pointing to the one red-headed child. "Elaine Prewett."

"She's my sisters' sister, therefore she's my sister," Draco said, glaring at him for interrupting.

"Sod off Malfoy, she's my family too. She's Ginny's age, she'll be coming to Hogwarts next year with her," Ron told Harry. "My uncles were looking into all that fertility magic stuff because Mom kept getting pregnant during the war and everyone was going _spare_ trying to figure out how to make it stop 'cause that was the only way to keep her from going and fighting with a kid on the way." Ron grinned. "That's why we're all going to be Gryffindors, we were on the battlefield even before we were born. Uncle Gideon's fiancé managed to get pregnant even after he died – that's Aunt Tabby, she's like related to McGonagall or something."

That explained the resemblance. Younger, though, and like when McGonagall smiled more than her serious expression.

"My sisters' birth Mother," Draco tapped his wand on the woman standing next to Narcissa Malfoy, "is Tabitha Cheshire. Her father was a Bagshot squib fostered out – they realized he was a squib when they had to regrow his arm, so he was fostered out for his safety young enough he didn't know his birth parents were magical until their granddaughter started doing accidental magic," Draco explained. "These days even the people without manors have better household wards than _that,_ so families have been able to keep their squibs as long as they take reasonable precautions since the fifties."

"My mum was helping Draco's mum when she got pregnant, and then Aunt Tabby put her foot down about getting pregnant too because she didn't want all of Uncle Gideon to die. They like bonded or something, so she went to go stay in the huge manor house with all the rooms instead of at _our_ house. Then Draco's mum couldn't have any more kids, and she and Aunt Tabby _really_ wanted more kids, so they ended up with _girls everywhere,"_ Ron said with relish. "Bill said that Mum used to get so mad that they got all the girls."

* * *

 _And I'm afraid that since this has been a 'glimpses into the life' fic rather than a plot-centered one, that's all I have to give you. I hope you did enjoy the 'verse and it made you think about how the HP world might work, or possibly even inspired more fic?_


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